Community Forums

Pogo · 06-20-2011, 08:16 PM

My wife and I are new to RV'ing. We want to be gone for about 3 months or so. I want to just go north or go west and make the next day's plan or the next week's plan as we go. I just want to go where it is cooler. We don't have to be anywhere and we don't have a strict timetable. I am open to maybe workcamping or whatever. I see this as an adventure.
My DW wants to plan a lot about where we go before we even leave. She says we need to know what we want to do, and where we want to go. I don't get it. That takes the fun out of it, or am I wrong?
How do you decide what you are going to do or where you are going to go?
Do you plan your trips in advance?

TW · 06-20-2011, 08:48 PM

We know 'roughly' where we like and want to go, but the HOW we leave a bit OPEN. Might change at the next turn-off?!?

We had to stick to our Flight Plan most of our life, now we just take it easy and drift down the Highway........ maybe to Anacortes, WA for an iRV2 meet or to Edmonton, AB for a Birtday Party, or to El Paso, TX to see our old HOMES and have a Steak at the most famous Steak House!

TW

UFO Pilot · 06-20-2011, 08:54 PM

We are seeing the USA for the first time so we try to find the things we want to see in the area we are traveling. We don't have a strict time table so we stay as long as needed to see the sights by Toad before moving the RV.

Arch Hoagland · 06-20-2011, 10:08 PM

We too go in a general direction to some far off point but wander along the way. Too much planning puts you back on a time schedule and starts to make a job out of it.
I have a license plate frame that says:
"Some who wander are not lost"
We'll plan for tomorrow's overnight stop but it's not etched in stone. If we make it, great. If not, so what. We've hit all 48 states using this method most of the time.

pkmesser · 06-20-2011, 10:25 PM

Usually we plan when we are leaving. If we are going to the coastal area along 101, I like to leave Sat afternoon, drive 4.5 hrs, spend the night, and get through the Bay area on Sun morning early. Otherwise, we do not plan.
We live 1 1/2 miles from the freeway, there have been many times, we loaded enough for several weeks, and decided which way to go before we get to the onramps. One trip, couldn't make up our minds, so stopped and flipped a coin before the first ramp heading east. Almost never make reservations. Very seldom have a schedule for where/when. Works good for us.
3 years ago, we bought into a timeshare program. The one we got into has very nice facilities and a lot of them. But, big problem, you have to plan ahead, and we just don't do that for vacation time.

SoCADesertRat · 06-23-2011, 07:14 PM

One thing to take into consideration is that during the high travel season - like summer - many good campgrounds in the West are reserved well ahead of arrivals. Unless you don't care where you spend the night, you may wish to call ahead to see if there is space in the campground where you would like to stay. If you are going to spend several days in one location, reservations ahead of time should be considered an essential.

bucks2 · 06-23-2011, 08:20 PM

We split our time between the boat and the motorhome, with a month or so at home in between trips. We have very rigid and strict plans prior to leaving. For example our boat trip starts next week on July 1st. The plan is to go North. Which is a good plan since we'll be gone 2 1/2 months and it's only 50 miles to the south end of the Puget Sound (Salish Sea) from where the boat is.

Next October 19th we'll leave in the motorhome with a return date of May 1. We'll see Galveston TX and spring training in the Phoenix area before we come home. That's all the planning we'll do in advance.

Each evening, we talk about what we want to do the next day. Sometimes we will make a plan to stay somewhere for a week. Sometimes we'll see what the weather does before we break camp.

This is a tough way to live, it's not for wimps. I'm pretty sure that we'll only take trips this way for another 20 years or so.

Ken

wa8yxm · 06-24-2011, 10:29 AM

How much planing do I do? About 5 minutes and 4 of those is waiting for the computer to boot because it has the maps on it.

I do find this: If you try to pack the maximum in to the vacation you will have maximum frustration.. If, on the other hand you try to pack a one week vacation into a 2 week time slot.. That is heavenly.

CoastieSCPO · 06-24-2011, 11:01 AM

Unless we're going to a destination type place like WDW Fort Wilderness or attending a rally, we do not make reservations or have an itinerary. I just know the general direction that we may go, check out the maps and just go. When we went to Alaska in 09 we had no reservations and never had a problem.

AFChap · 06-24-2011, 11:14 AM

Quote:

Unless we're going to a destination type place like WDW Fort Wilderness or attending a rally, we do not make reservations

Ditto ...and on those rare occasions when we have been turned away from a campground it is normally due to the sites being filled with long-term workers in the area.

We are fulltimers. We make a general plan each calendar year somewhat organized around a rally or two we know we will attend. Then we fill in the blanks between those few destinations with places we think we want to go. That helps our kids as they sometimes plan to meet us somewhere along the way. But then as we travel, we feel free to make frequent and plentiful changes as the urge strikes.

We like to have a vague plan to deviate from !!

Barbara S. · 06-24-2011, 11:27 AM

When headed to the irv2.com rally last year I made reservations for each night going there. We had a time schedule and had to be in Williams, AZ on a specific date. The plan was to go to Las Vegas from there so reservations were made there months in advance. For the trip back home there was no time table and no reservations.

1ciderdog · 06-24-2011, 08:33 PM

This is how it works for us. We are presenty in the second month of a four month trip. Several months before we left we broke out a USA map and asked each other what are things we would like to do or see on this trip. With a grease pencil we circled things or cities we thought would interest us. Then measured out about 300 miles distance and kind of worked out a tentative itinerary. Not all the things or cities worked out but we'll make those next time. We modified the itinerary seveal times prior to leaving - part of the fun of the trip was figuring out what, where, zdding new locations, etc. We have not held fast to the tentative itinerary but it gave us a basic outline of what we thought we might want to do, etc. There were three places we had as must visit and that is our kids in CA, ME & FL. We allowed sufficient time to wander around between those visits but we were able to give kids a tentative arrival & departure date which is/was important for them so they could schedule time off from work (I hate that word) and be able to entertain us. We have been RVing many years with several trips around the US & Canada and we always prepare a tentative plan that we kind of follow but deviate as we choose. Personally, I think a compromise between your need to wander and your wife's need for a structured trip needs to be worked out so that you have a loose agreement before you hit the road. We only make reservations if we know we will be in a tourist area during tourist season - and that is rarely.
Good luck and happy travels
Bob

Pogo · 06-26-2011, 09:59 AM

Thanks to all of you that answered. It helps me to understand a little better.
My wife pointed out to me that she is leaving her home and her job and her two adult sons to travel, but I am leaving nothing behind to travel. So, she doesn't want to "waste" days traveling when she could be back home. But, if we are going to plan a great time, then ok. Now I get it.
I recently retired, and I don't care near as much about our big house. Our sons are in their 20's.

Grimesy · 06-26-2011, 10:13 AM

Normally we discuss what we would like to see and then I figure a route which figures in mileage per day,visit time at each location, RV Parks and the like. As we are leaving the driveway the DW says I don't want to go that way, I want to see point "X" first and stop off and see so and so. Planning is fun,going is the frosting.

Don